Tivoli host Village in feature match

Defending Digicel Premier League champions, Tivoli Gardens, will try to keep pace with league leaders Harbour View when they host sixth -place Village United at the Edward Seaga Sports Complex this afternoon at 5 o'clock.

Harbour View lead the standings with 57 points, followed by Tivoli Gardens (54), with Waterhouse (43) rounding out the top three.

Tivoli easily got past Village (33) in their two previous encounters this season, first blanking them 4-0 at today's venue encounter before inflecting a 3-0 beating on them in the return fixture.

Tivoli have not tasted defeat so far in the third round, winning five games and drawing the other; they have in fact not lost in their last nine games. Village have also been having a good run in the third round, suffering only one defeat in their six games while winning four and drawing the other.

Villagers a challenge

Lenworth Hyde Sr, coach of Tivoli, knows it will not be as easy as it was in the previous two rounds to beat the Villagers.

"We have to approach the game with a lot of discipline and a lot of respect because they are playing good so we have to play our 'A' game, because every game is very important now," said Hyde."We have to take care of our fixtures, Harbour View have to take care of their fixtures; we just have to deal with our team and what we have to do to get maximum points when we play," he added.

Tivoli Gardens will be without the services of Rolan Dean and Irvino English for the game, while Jerry Walters is doubtful. They will, however, welcome back their influential captain, Navion Boyd.

Village will be missing five players of their own who are off the island on trials. They include Allan Ottey, Lance Laing, Ryan Cooper and Omar Allen. Village's coach, Paul 'Tegat' Davis plans to do his best with what he has.

"We will be short but we have to just continue with what we have and play, that is why JFF says you should register 30-plus players, so it doesn't matter if they are called to national duties; I don't think any games should be stopped," said Davis. "We are going to approach the game like how we approach all the games, we are just going to go and play some football. They have good players, we have good players too," he added.

Harbour View SEEK 11th WIN

Leaders Harbour View, with 10 away wins in this campaign, will go in search of their 11th when they travel to the Prison Oval to face ninth-place Rivoli United (30) at 4 o'clock. The Stars of the East have clipped Rivoli by 1-0 goal margins in their two previous encounters this campaign and will be looking to their in-form striker Kavin Bryan to find the back of the net.

Waterhouse will entertain seventh-place Humble Lions (31), who have gone unbeaten in their last five games. Waterhouse will need to secure all three points from the encounter if they are to preserve any thoughts of catching the leaders.

Fourth-place St Georges (41) and fifth-place Boys' Town (39) clash at Collie Smith Drive in what is expected to be a keenly contested match with the Red Brigade knowing a win will see them overtaking their opponents.